“Sadji… you must take me for an idiot. After all, an idiot would accuse you of taking tetrodotoxin to slow your pulse and reduce your respiration but you’d be in a coma-like state for days, so I won’t bother insulting both of us with the suggestion you’ve taken something to appear this way.”
A smile appeared on his lips, but it wasn’t amused, it was the smile of a man trying to avoid provoking his worst nightmare with the scent of his fear. She asked him her age again. He paused and put his hands to his lips in a praying position, eyes darting, wide for a moment. With that, a strange look in his eyes, he met her confident gaze again and said, “You are… at most. Thirty-four years old. And you’ve also drugged me with some sort of hallucinogenic. What was it, then? Where’s the syringe? What is it you actually want?”
The smile was fading slowly and giving way to a grimace. ‘Library fees.’ She was quick on her feet. He could play along too, even if he was high as a kite. “Library fees…” he repeated, wondering when he would collapse or start seeing more vivid visual or auditory or tactile hallucinations. “Because you can’t expect me, me, a world-class detective and expert in several sciences, languages, skills and unique areas of research to tell you that you’re over two-thousand years old.” He laughed, a forced, breathless sound. All he could look at was her.
“So what did you dose me with?” This wasn’t the first time and he didn’t believe it would be the last time. His brain felt like it was on fire in his skull. A light sheen of sweat could be observed on his brow and upper lip.